Those questions continue to linger, but perhaps not as prominent as they did in the preseason.

Dickson led the Ravens in receptions with five, for 59 yards and one touchdown, while Pitta caught two passes for 45 yards in Sunday’s 35-7 pasting of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

After the game, Dickson could’ve used part of his interview to rail at critics, but he declined to take the bait.

“Me and Dennis don’t listen to all that,” he said. “We know that we’ve got a big role to fill with everybody relying on us, and we want to go out and play good. They tell us, ‘Do your job, and we’ll be fine.’ I felt like Dennis had a really good game. He caught the ball strong, and we did a good job in the running game. We worked together.”

Dickson confirmed that it was part of the Ravens' offensive strategy to send the tight ends into the flats and force the Steelers outside linebackers to drop into coverage and run with the tight ends.

“You’ve got to attack them at their strength,” he said. “Those are some of the best outside linebackers in the league, and we wanted to attack them at their strength. We want to go at them.”